Yes, I worked for a wilderness residential youth camp in the Fl. Everglades-as a counselor, slept 5 nights a week in an open air semi-permanent tent (I had trouble sleeping inside when off duty because there was no background noise). With a promotion, I slept during the daytime and roamed 300 acres of wilds everynight.
There are few jobs that allow you to see some of the amazing sights I saw there-from sunsets/rises, hurricanes, 80* in february, etc. But the most amazing thing was the abundant wildlife-tracking a 200 LB panther, seeing a juvenile panther right outside a coworkers home, watching a hawk and getting the feeling of being watched-seeing a bobcat watching me when I look up, the large whitetail deer, gigantic wild hogs, snakes of many kinds, lizards, spiders, and flying monkeys (tiger and regular mosquitoes big enough to carry you away!), and of course aligators.
The wildlife itself was great, but almost as good was that it set the scene for good pranks on coworkers. I worked at night, walking up to 20 miles per night alone, in the everglades most of the time without a light (saved on batteries and let me move without letting people know I was around); by contrast, most other people were terrified of the dark woods-including those that had to be in them. One night, I set my boss up good. He usually tried to show tough love to the kids there-and acted like he was tough. Well, I waited for him to leave a campsite while I hid in the dark-when he was only a couple feet from me, I snarled loudly while making "claws" with my hands by my face (think scooby doo like)-this poor guy did 4 things at once-jumped about 2 feet up, crouched in the air, swatted with one hand and squealed like a 5 year old! When he landed, he couldnt even curse at me because there were kids nearby. He never did pay me back for that...
Ahh Camping--I love camping living in the wild, well when I was a kid I did.. The cold didn't matter, niether the heat.. But I remmember! Thankyou for bringing that back!
